Paul-Improvement Thread Doing some VFX! Critiques welcome

I'm not as good at anatomy in zbrush as I'd like to be. I'm going to devote two hours a day to working on it. I really enjoy drawing people, and I'm pretty confident doing it, and I want to be just as confident in 3D. This is going to be one of them long term threads. SO Please critique along the way.

Last update on this character for a while. I learned quite a bit form this little project. I'll use everything I"ve learned on this piece to better myself on the next one. I had a LOT of fun working on this, which is partially why it took me so long. I Felt like I was learning something new every other day. With that being said I cant wait to start working on my next piece. There are more WIP images in my sketchbook thread. herehttp://polycount.com/discussion/173902/sketchbook-paul-miller#latest

Made some Fan art of the Fox from Rime. Didnt have a lot of time to deal with it, but I think i'll be able to come back to it soon. IT was a lot of fun, considering I never do anything like this. By which I mean, animal, and/or cute. Cant wait to try something like this again. https://www.artstation.com/artwork/r4mx6

Going back and taking a few of the things I've learned recently to redo a model I really enjoyed a while back. I'm addressing some concerns i got at GDC, namely. The polycount was too high. (They weren't kidding, I had the original model at over 30k polys. I got it down to 11k, and it looks better now IMO.). the texture wasn't varied enough. It needs to be presented better.

SO the next thing I"m going to do is mess with the presentation, and try to copy what some successful people have done.

So i'm trying to emulate what HeV did on their diver girl piece. (Saw it on the front page.). I feel confident that I can make this sculpt better, after coming back at it tommorow with some fresh eyes. Hair is ultimately the one thing i'm worried about, So I think i'm going to take this week, to figure out how the hell to do it, before I bust open this model to sculpt again.

Just some comments I've recieved on this piece so far. i thought sharing it would prove helpful myself andsome others.

I think the eyes are sort of a weird shape, I would remove t he eyeliner as a seperate object and make them lashes. The face has some weird shapes on it. Definitely make sure you understand and show the cheekbones and how they interact with the cheeks. How the lips fold over each other is important too (the top typically creases over the bottom lip in an interesting shape), the chin and muscles around the mouth do some interesting things there too

she's coming across as cross eyed right now, be careful about that

the hair is looking pretty good, but make sure that you detail the top and back as well as you detailed the front

So this is wierd. I'm trying to throw some materials on this joker, And for whatever reason My triangles keep showing up hard AF.

With normals applied even.

Yet, in Painter it looks fine...This seems like a bush league issue, but for the life of Me I can not figure out what the problem is. THought I was smoothing the normals in Modo but I guess not? Woof, Maybe I"ll be able to solve this tomorrow, until then I"m going to bed...

so I fixed one problem then ran into several more , ambiguous and completely solvable problems. I'm still following hevs lead on this. imnreallynglad they shared a breakdown because that's intensely helpful. anywho gonna work on making the face and hair look like Hev did, this weekend. then following up with some hair cards to add more volume.

edit: Boo for posting things out of context, NOt where I want it to be, but i'v elearned a lot so far. things that are bothering me:1. It feels ultra plasticy in the face. 2. I guess faceting on the hair isn't the worst thing on the planet. The hair doesnt look detailed enough. SO I guess i'll try painting in more hair strands? I"m really not sure what to do for it. 3. Eyelashes look weird, so i'm going to take a good look at Hevs piece (Diver girl) and really figure out whats going on in there, 4. I wanted the green to be this marble kind of material, but i'm not sure i got that right. SO going to have to check out that reference again.

A few things ive learned-How to turn down the saturation in Marmoset, and Substance, so ican look at my material values. and wow I'm mad i couldnt figure that out before, but it sure does help. -SCulpt the hair exactly how you want it. That would have saved me some time on the end. -I'm not sure if this is a rule, but i figure you dont want to be adding thigns at the end of your project ( in my case, eye lashes) so model it on from the jump or atleast think about that stuff.

Whew, learned a lot on this. Mainly, that i still cant sculpt faces yet. More practice is needed. ANywho. I do like trying to familiarize myself with thep rocess of taking pieces to completion instead of letting them sit in purgatory. SO in the Interim, I'm going to start in on something new whil the critiques come in for this, and I'll just fix this model in the future.

Thanks a bunch @CybranM , having had some time to digest the model, I'm not digging the low poly as much as i'm digging the high poly. even the high poly still has some issues if i'm being honest. I'd like to go back before the end of the year and rectify some of this stuff.

-also, thanks on the Squig, yeah. I'm really excited to see what i can do on this joker.

-I hadn't thought of that (changing the first image) thanks for the advice.

Update on where i'm at so far, still noodling away. I want to start detailing soon, but I wanna make sure i have everything where it needs to be before I do that, I know i still got to add a big ole pocket on to the jacket next so that'l lbe the next. thing.

Good stuff in here man, the latest sculpt looks really cool. I thought it seemed kind of soft but the renders on your portfolio look really sharp, probably just the Matcap you're using in the updates making it seem softer than it is.

The Squig is awesome too, I think I prefer it with the simpler texturing you did in your first pass though, but super cool either way.

Good stuff in here man, the latest sculpt looks really cool. I thought it seemed kind of soft but the renders on your portfolio look really sharp, probably just the Matcap you're using in the updates making it seem softer than it is.

The Squig is awesome too, I think I prefer it with the simpler texturing you did in your first pass though, but super cool either way.

Thank @JamesArkI havent figured out how to get really sweet renders out of zbrush yet, so I mainly just use it to show any changes in the model, not really to present things. Ive seen some awesome shots though, so I've gotta figure out how to make zbrush images look really nice.

Thanks about the Squig too. Yeah I think i feel you a bit. I was really trying to see how far I could push it while still making it look cartoony. I dont think it was "bad" but i definitely learned a lot from my mistakes on that one.

Your latest looks so much better. The clothing looks a little too perfect though. Would love to see more folds and creases. Study reference for that better and I bet you nail it.

Thanks @allengingrichWhat would you suggest for some more imperfections? I figured I could get that done in the texture and wha tnot, but i'm more than open to suggestions. You saying more wrinkles would do it?

Whew buddy, had to stop that model for a bit, Had an art test recently. (HOpe i pass!). Anywho. i started on a new model, thats not a human, because the art test took out my will to do a realistic character, for atleast a week. So here's the blockout of a Valilant, based off the concept art from the Game Grey Goo. Will be posting more WIPS in the sketch thread, just posting here to show you the big updates etc etc

Till blocking this joker out. I'm using a few different methods to get the results I want. I"m really just doing what ends up being the most efficient for whatever piece in the end. I'm not Sub-d Modeling pieces unless I have to. I'm defiantly going to have to do that for the head though. Still haven't figured that part out.

Figure I'll post here every few days. I think i'm finally happy enough to start doing some details on this joker. I still gotta work out his fore arms, wrists, and hands. Cant wait to make those look uber mechanical.

Gonna be takign my time on the anatomy on this one. I feel like i'm already making good progress, but normally in the past this would be where i stop, so this time i'll push beyond.I"m trying to focus on the hands, but somethings throwing me off. Like, it looks lumpy, but i'm not sure if thats just me or not. More work on it tonight should rectify it, but in the meantime can I get some thoughts?

still blocking this joker out. I think maybe i can start detailing this month, but i’d rather not rush it. I just found another piece of reference to use, as for quality bar, the female illidan done by agelessap. they basically already did what i’m trying to do, so i’m gonna emulate them from this point on

got some critiques on the upperbody, placement of her "armor" size of for arms and calves. and i threw in some rope. I'm goign to edit the rope further tonight cause right now it is NOT WORKING for me.